I am about to move to the exurbs and have access to only very poor internet service. 5G home is not available.

So I am looking at Starlink, but I am unclear on one thing: if they provision service for me, am I able to take my equivalent of a MODEM with me to another location, maybe even in a travel trailer on camping trips, for example? I will be in a rental house while they are building my house. Can I provision in the rental house, then move it to the new house when it's built, or is the satellite looking for me in a certain location?

Thanks in advance for enlightenment on the topic.

I think it's an additional $25/month to add portability. There's an extensive thread in the front page.

You may want to look at their map before you get too deep in this. Most places in Texas are pre-order with delivery in late 2023 if you order now

https://www.starlink.com/map

There's plenty of us who pre-ordered in Feb 2021 that still don't have service

If you go into the T-Mobile store or call them, they are likely to give you their home service even if you are "not available" on their website. If you have any decent signal, this might be the better way to go.

You can also look into hacking hotspots to look like cell phones. That is how I run my home internet on AT&T at $30/month.

T-Mobile can suck outside of town.

EMY92 said:

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T-Mobile can suck outside of town.

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Maybe in 2015, but that is not the case today. They are up there with Verizon and AT&T with T-Mobile's low band (band 71) acquisition and deployment.

T-Mobile home also comes with a 15 day free trial to test it out. That said, it does suck at my house. It will depend on where you are.

Sites like https://www.cellmapper.net/map can help you find the closest tower, but it's not 100% accurate.

I have Starlink and it's amazing!

I completely lose coverage in areas between Waco & BCS. In the areas where they're good, they're very good. However, in areas where they're bad, they're very bad. I've been a T-Mobile customer for 8 years after 17 with AT&T (and various companies prior to becoming AT&T). I had better rural coverage on AT&T 8 years ago.

That said, I'm happy with TM and also have home internet with them.

What phone are you using? It is possible you have one that does not support the new rural bands, or it is just bad in your area.

Currently, S22 Ultra.

It's been a couple of years, but I couldn't get any signal just north of Waco. Last week, there were several areas where I had no signal between Waco and BCS.

100% not your phone. I guess it just sucks there.

That's disappointing! From looking at CellMapper, it looks like there are a lot of Band 71 (600Mhz) and Band 12 (700Mhz) towers along the route from Waco to CS. The only spot that looks like it may be empty is where 6 and 14 meet, but I'd still think that would be covered.

Looks like my only option would be a 5MB LTE connection, other than some local yokel that runs wireless towers from a faster source out into the boonies. I will have to check on Starlink but who knows when they might provision.

Sorry to bump this thread, but I was wondering if there is any new feelings about Starlink? I can actually save money and improve my speeds by going to them from my AT&T hotspot. It just doesn't suit out needs reliably.

I had a few questions about starlink:

How long from when you pay $99 and get on the list do you end up with gear and service?

Is it capped or limited on data?

In relation to above, I need this for whole home internet including 4k or at least HD streaming, as I am killing my expensive Dish Network for streaming services if I can. Will this be a viable option?

How is it in reliability? My Broadband is faster or slower at times with the fastest usually being close to 50mb and even then, it doesn't SEEM fast when in practice.

What is the 'indoor' gear like? Can I hook my wifi router to it and get more connections for devices?

BrazosDog02 said:

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Sorry to bump this thread, but I was wondering if there is any new feelings about Starlink? I can actually save money and improve my speeds by going to them from my AT&T hotspot. It just doesn't suit out needs reliably.

I had a few questions about starlink:

How long from when you pay $99 and get on the list do you end up with gear and service?

Is it capped or limited on data?

In relation to above, I need this for whole home internet including 4k or at least HD streaming, as I am killing my expensive Dish Network for streaming services if I can. Will this be a viable option?

How is it in reliability? My Broadband is faster or slower at times with the fastest usually being close to 50mb and even then, it doesn't SEEM fast when in practice.

What is the 'indoor' gear like? Can I hook my wifi router to it and get more connections for devices?

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No one knows when you'll convert to residential once you get on the waiting list. There are still people in Texas who pre-ordered in 2020 that still don't have service. Most people I've seen are waiting 12-18 months.

As of February, you're limited to 1TB of "priority" data on residential. After that, you get bumped down to the best effort/RV priority tier. If you're in a congested cell, you'll likely get single digit speeds during peak hours. You can buy RV/best effort today. No priority data comes with that service. During the day you'd likely be good, but from 4p-11p you'll struggle with speeds. Even on residential, I was seeing 1-3mbps during peak hours several months ago.

You'll go over your 1TB allotment if you intend to cut the cord. I use 1.5-2TB a month with 1-2 streams running most of the day. Usage from 11p-7a doesn't count against you. I try to schedule big downloads during those times.

Speeds are very variable. One minute you may see 100mbps and 20 sec later it's 20mbps. I also lose signal in rain. It's bad enough I have a failover LTE device so I can keep working. I haven't had too many non-weather related outages outside of the global outage last month.

SL's router is terrible. You can buy an ethernet adapter for it that costs $25. SL lets you put the router in bypass mode and you can run your own router behind it. You could also get something like Dishypowa that lets you completely remove the SL router.

I just ran a speed test. This is one of the better ones I've seen lately.

txyaloo said:

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BrazosDog02 said:

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Sorry to bump this thread, but I was wondering if there is any new feelings about Starlink? I can actually save money and improve my speeds by going to them from my AT&T hotspot. It just doesn't suit out needs reliably.

I had a few questions about starlink:

How long from when you pay $99 and get on the list do you end up with gear and service?

Is it capped or limited on data?

In relation to above, I need this for whole home internet including 4k or at least HD streaming, as I am killing my expensive Dish Network for streaming services if I can. Will this be a viable option?

How is it in reliability? My Broadband is faster or slower at times with the fastest usually being close to 50mb and even then, it doesn't SEEM fast when in practice.

What is the 'indoor' gear like? Can I hook my wifi router to it and get more connections for devices?

---

No one knows when you'll convert to residential once you get on the waiting list. There are still people in Texas who pre-ordered in 2020 that still don't have service. Most people I've seen are waiting 12-18 months.

As of February, you're limited to 1TB of "priority" data on residential. After that, you get bumped down to the best effort/RV priority tier. If you're in a congested cell, you'll likely get single digit speeds during peak hours. You can buy RV/best effort today. No priority data comes with that service. During the day you'd likely be good, but from 4p-11p you'll struggle with speeds. Even on residential, I was seeing 1-3mbps during peak hours several months ago.

You'll go over your 1TB allotment if you intend to cut the cord. I use 1.5-2TB a month with 1-2 streams running most of the day. Usage from 11p-7a doesn't count against you. I try to schedule big downloads during those times.

Speeds are very variable. One minute you may see 100mbps and 20 sec later it's 20mbps. I also lose signal in rain. It's bad enough I have a failover LTE device so I can keep working. I haven't had too many non-weather related outages outside of the global outage last month.

SL's router is terrible. You can buy an ethernet adapter for it that costs $25. SL lets you put the router in bypass mode and you can run your own router behind it. You could also get something like Dishypowa that lets you completely remove the SL router.

I just ran a speed test. This is one of the better ones I've seen lately.

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I think your speeds really depends on where you are. We have starlink at our property in west Texas (middle of No where). There are only a few houses within a 10 mile radius. We consistently get 150-250 Mbps down and 15-20 Mbps up. We stream all the TV services (YouTubeTV, Disney, Netflix, prime, hbomax, Apple, etc.) without issue. I've also used it to conduct business meetings via teams without issue.

If you are in a congested area, then you are likely sharing the service with others which translates to slower speeds.

Most people that are within 10 miles of me have fiber or alternative options for internet. I just don't because I'm outside of the city a bit.

In fact, those people that have fiber optic obtain it from the fiber that hangs on the poles that run along my property.

I don't have access to it though.

BrazosDog02 said:

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Most people that are within 10 miles of me have fiber or alternative options for internet. I just don't because I'm outside of the city a bit.

In fact, those people that have fiber optic obtain it from the fiber that hangs on the poles that run along my property.

I don't have access to it though.

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You may be ok. If they all use fiber, then they wouldn't be on the satellites you'd be using. I think they have a trial period for you to test it out for 30 days. Would be a pain if you had to send it back but at least you could give it a test drive.

BrazosDog02 said:

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Sorry to bump this thread, but I was wondering if there is any new feelings about Starlink? I can actually save money and improve my speeds by going to them from my AT&T hotspot. It just doesn't suit out needs reliably.

I had a few questions about starlink:

How long from when you pay $99 and get on the list do you end up with gear and service?

Is it capped or limited on data?

In relation to above, I need this for whole home internet including 4k or at least HD streaming, as I am killing my expensive Dish Network for streaming services if I can. Will this be a viable option?

How is it in reliability? My Broadband is faster or slower at times with the fastest usually being close to 50mb and even then, it doesn't SEEM fast when in practice.

What is the 'indoor' gear like? Can I hook my wifi router to it and get more connections for devices?

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The sooner you get on the list the better. They are adding new satellites all the time and the service is just getting better and better.

1 TB until data depreciation. We've never hit that even with multiple streaming every night.

Order the Ethernet adapter same time you buy the hardware so you can run your own mesh if you want. While you're at it order the 150' cable and pole mount too.

In terms of reliability it's been great for us with minimal outages. Really heavy rain may knock it out for a few minutes just like with satellite TV. But with a clear view of the sky we have not experienced many outages. It just works.

I say get on the list. You're going to love it in comparison to the hotspot.

Edit: Speeds were not over Starlink and just through the Starlink app using the current connection.

I just ran a speedtest over the StarLink app for our house near Snook. It got 309 down and 251 up. That's the fastest up I have ever seen. The down has been up to 335 recently. There have been significant upgrades over the last few months.

I have still only ever seen 130 down (rare). I'm in Kaufman country and assume my cell is packed.

tfunk02 said:

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I just ran a speedtest over the StarLink app for our house near Snook. It got 309 down and 251 up. That's the fastest up I have ever seen. The down has been up to 335 recently. There have been significant upgrades over the last few months.

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How did you get your up so high? I am hoping to have mine more balanced but it always like 250 down and like 15 up.

Edit: See below.

I just realized that I am an idiot. I was using the Starlink app to run speed tests from Houston thinking it remotely connected. I didn't notice that the box at the bottom said it would only test your CURRENT connection. Those were some 5G Houston tests instead of speed from my Starlink.

Sorry everyone!

I knew I had to be missing something when I got a 500+/400+ test on a fiber based wifi connection... Finally paid attention to the wording there. Oops!

I had it for a while, it's the best satellite internet you can get

Mine was very erratic but stabilized recently. I still have peak hours where my speed slows to 10mbps or even lower. Still better than the only wired provider we have available and those times have been less frequent. My only real complaint is rain. Just like Dish and DTV, the slightest bit of rain knocks it out.